A file photo of heroin.
RIYADH: Saudi authorities on Wednesday beheaded a Pakistani for smuggling drugs and a Saudi for killing a compatriot, the interior ministry said, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom this year to nine.
Mohammed Asharaf Ramadan was caught attempting to smuggle into the kingdom an amount of heroin that he swallowed, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
He was executed in Riyadh.
In another case, Saudi national Turki Ahmed al-Salami, was executed in the southwestern Asir region after he was convicted of shooting dead Salman Subaykhi, the ministry said in a separate statement.
Saudi Arabia beheaded 78 people in 2013, according to an AFP count.
Last year, the UN High Commission for Human Rights denounced a "sharp increase in the use of capital punishment" since 2011 in the kingdom.
According to figures from Amnesty International, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia jumped from 27 in 2010, of whom five were foreigners, to 82 in 2011, including 28 foreigners.
In 2012, the number of executions slipped slightly to 79 people, among them 27 foreign nationals.
Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the conservative kingdom's strict law.
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@Saleem: Would this be something enough for a facepalm? link text
@Hafiz: Srsly? the Saudi laws are crystal clear on holding narcotics....Death penalty and they never spare anyone including the royal family. Whats the point in having national pride and ego trying to protect a criminal?
Ever heard of Saudis beheading a white American or European!!??
reminds me of kohail brother case, everytime i read a pakistani executed in Saudi. The Saudi judicial system (no matter how much our religious community think otherwise) is though based on Sharia but not perfectly. As a result the proof is not always clear. In addition, who knows whether or not the poor Pakistani was framed by the real drug lords. Also, do not we remember the huge intervention from our govt when a family going for umrah was held in saudi for drug trafficking, only because of the intervention that the case was properly investigated, else when it comes to non-western and non-white poor immigrants from third world, saudi investigation is a different standard.
any guts to retaliate ?? no.
@Pakistani: going by your logic such punishments should deter. It ain't deterring as evident by the rising numbers. Pakistan has better and humane laws. Enforcement is what's missing.